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In our emails, sent once or twice a week, you'll receive:
• alerts on new threats to Michigan's environment
• opportunities to join other Michiganders on urgent actions
• updates on the decisions that impact our environment
• resources to help you create a cleaner, greener future

Report:

Michigan's Biggest Mercury Polluters

Power plants continue to release large amounts of toxic mercury. In 2010, 80 percent of all airborne mercury pollution in Michigan came from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants.*

Mercury is a neurotoxicant. When children are exposed to mercury during critical periods of development, it can contribute to irreversible deficits in verbal skills, damage to attention and motor control, and reduced IQ.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed the first national standards limiting mercury and other toxic pollution from power plants. Implementing these standards will protect public health.

Coal-fired power plants in Michigan are a major source of airborne mercury pollution.

• The Detroit Edison Monroe Power Plant in Monroe emitted the most mercury pollution of any power plant in Michigan in 2010, releasing 660 pounds. This amount is significant. One small drop of mercury is enough to make the fish in a 25-acre lake unsafe to eat.

• The Monroe Plant ranked as the fourteenth most polluting power plant for mercury emissions in the nation.

• Three of the top 100 most polluting power plants for mercury emissions in the country are located in Michigan.

• Among all states nationwide, Michigan ranked tenth in terms of the total amount of airborne mercury pollution released by power plants – 2,253 pounds.

New EPA standards will limit mercury pollution from power plants and protect public health.

• Under the authority of the Clean Air Act, EPA has developed the first national standard limiting releases of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from power plants. As proposed in March, 2011, these standards will require power plant owners to cut overall emissions of mercury by more than 90 percent using widely available, proven pollution control technologies.

• The new emission standards will improve public health. EPA estimates that for every dollar spent to reduce pollution from power plants, the American public and American businesses will see up to $13 in health and economic benefits. In total, the rules could provide as much as $140 billion worth of benefits annually.

• EPA should finalize and implement these new safeguards.

*The data presented in this report focus on power plant emissions data reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Industries not required to report to TRI, or facilities with emissions below the reporting threshold, will not be represented in the data.